R. Carlos Nakai

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2024 Concert Series sponsored by

Nakai is not an archivist of traditional songs but a synthesist of old and new sounds.

—AllMusic

R. Carlos Nakai is the world’s premier performer of the Native American flute. Originally trained in classical trumpet and music theory, Nakai, who is of Navajo-Ute heritage, began playing the traditional Native American flute in the early 1980s. He has released more than 50 albums during his career, 40 of them on the Phoenix-based Canyon Records label. Nakai has sold more than 4.3 million albums for Canyon, and in 2014, Canyon Trilogy, his 1989 release, reached more than 1 million records sold, a first for a Native American artist performing traditional solo flute music. Earth Spirit, released in 1987, has been certified as a gold record. Nakai has also received 11 Grammy nominations and earned a Governor’s Arts Award.

Nakai’s career has been shaped by a desire to communicate a sense of Native American culture and society that transcends the stereotypes presented in mass media. This performance will feature solos for the native American flute as well as Nakai’s classical compositions, accompanied by piano, cello, and violin.